Note

Strategies for Survival was written as a performance text to be spoken
aloud between the presentation of five recorded pieces. There are four
sections of the text. In performance, each section was preceded by a
musical recording. A fifth musical recording was played as an encore
following the last text.

The text may be used in performance in
a similar way, or with live music played between the four sections of the
text, including at the beginning and end.

Within the text, I
have referenced authors of various theories, papers, and books. These are
not to be read aloud. Some of the shorter statements have been extracted
on-line from Amusingfacts.com.

The first performance took place
on April 1st, 2006, in the Pozen Center at the Massachusetts College of Art
in Boston. Recorded pieces were composed from samples borrowed from the
earliest known music, and from 20th and 21st century music and sound,
reconstructed to accommodate my own requirements. The recorded pieces
ranged in duration from 3 to 13 minutes each. Altogether, the performance
lasted about an hour.

-J. H.

___________

Strategies for Survival

1.

I try never to underestimate
someone else’s pain.

Ideas are reproduced through culture,
and effect our behavior.

In his landmark paper on reciprocal
altruism, Robert Trivers states that ‘almost all social behavior is
either selfish or altruistic, or has such effects’.

China
is the world's oldest known continuous civilization.

The
prominent role that the eyes play in predator-prey relations in nature has
led to the evolution of numerous eye-mimics: ‘ fake eyes , located,
for example, on the wings of butterflies have evolved to deflect the
predator’s attack onto a relatively harmless part of the
anatomy. (Robert Trivers)

In the 20th century alone, over
three million people have died from earthquakes.

In the fall,
most deciduous trees produce a chemical that repels insects from laying
eggs on the leaves of the trees. As a result, the trees display striking
autumnal color changes. (W. D. Hamilton)

It requires a
sequence of 31 integers to describe the number of possible patterns in an
array of 10 by 10 black and white squares. (Stephen Wolfram)

When frightened by a predator, a certain species of tree lizard will
change to a brownish color in order to mimic the color of the tree limb on
which it rests.

Sometimes I will go to a professional basketball
game by myself and listen to Rigoletto on headphones, or waltzes by Johann
Strauss Jr. played by a small string ensemble.

The only South East Asian
country that has never been colonized by a Western Power is Thailand.

In women, the longer the 2nd finger compared to the 4th finger, the
greater her number of children. In males, the shorter the 2nd finger
compared to the 4th, the greater his number of children. (John
Manning)

The ratio of 2nd to 4th finger length in humans is a
predictor of in utero testosterone levels, and correlates with aspects of
autism, dyslexia, migrane, heart disease, stammering, obesity, autoimmune
disease, sexual preferences, abilities in skiing, soccer, language, music,
and mathematics.

Ancient Egyptians kissed with their
noses instead of their lips.

At one time, physicist Isaac Newton
was Keeper of the Mint in England, where he gave many long jail sentences
to counterfeiters who violated Newton’s passion for truth.